The Shield
by Ozymandias9
Summary: Reflections on Superman's shield and the various people who wear it.
1. Clark Kent, Superman

The Shield

Clark Kent, Superman

Lois pressed print and stood up from her desk. As she walked over to the printer, she stopped to watch as Clark sat in the "work" room (that is, the one room in the apartment without any windows) with a sewing kit. He was mending one of his Superman costumes, probably the one damaged in the fight with Faust last week. From the red thread she occasionally saw bob up and down, she assumed he was working on the "S" shield. It was the part that always took the longest.

The way people thought of that shield had always been a good indicator of how they thought of Superman. For some people, it was all but a symbol of divinity. The cult that Wonder Girl had fallen in with after Connor's death was the first example that came to her mind. There were, of course, others: try as he might, Clark had been unable to dissuade some people from thinking of him like a god. It was something that had always troubled him deeply.

Thankfully that view had, at least in the parts of the world where the flow of information wasn't limited to word of mouth, been at least partially sublimated by knowledge of Superman's extra-terrestrial origins. These days, when some enterprising young author does a book on Superman, they talk about how he's "The Last Son of Krypton." To them, the shield is a kryptonian symbol: something otherworldly. Or in the case of the more paranoid (Lois had once had the displeasure of meeting Amanda Waller), a symbol of an alien threat.

There were a few who even knew that the symbol (which translated, more or less, as hope) doubled as the symbol of the House of El. The majority of the superheroes (and villains) of note that Clark ran across seemed to get to this point eventually. These people tended, by and large, to know the name Kal, even if they didn't connect it to Clark.

But there were very few, even out of the people who called him Clark on occasion, that truly understood how Clark himself saw the Shield. Lois herself hadn't really noticed it till a few years back (though she did have a history of ... farsightedness with her husband's wardrobe habits).

Initially, Martha had always mended Clark's costumes on the rare occasion that one of them was damaged. Lois Lane doesn't sew, and Clark never could get his mother to teach him how (she had always simply insisted on doing it herself).

But about 5 years back, Clark had made a special point to head out to Gotham and have Alfred teach him how to sew. After that Clark had started to mend them himself with increasing regularity (though he tended to defer to Alfred on the occasion that he needed a new one made from scratch). Lois finally understood why 3 years ago when Martha was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Clark had probably noticed well before Johnathan had even started to push her to see a doctor about the pain. And of course, she would never admit it to Clark (children weren't supposed to have to worry about their parents), but the costumes must have been painful to make.

Of course, Martha did occasionally keep up with her son's goings on. Clark always made sure he had a (slightly) damaged uniform for her to mend if she noticed that one was ripped in a picture. He never had the heart to say "no" to her. And despite his insistence that she take her time, Martha would always have it good as new the day later.

If Superman had been sewing the uniform at super speed with super accuracy, it would have taken him seconds to finish the shield. Clark Kent was usually on that part for an hour or so. For him, this wasn't about Superman. It wasn't about Krypton or the House of El. It wasn't even about the people who saw the shield and felt a ray of hope.

It was about Martha Kent and her son Clark. Lois hoped that, if they ever had kids, she would do as good a job as Martha had.

Except for the sewing. Lois Lane doesn't sew. Even if it was Lane-Kent these days.


	2. Clark Kent, Superboy Prime

The Shield

Clark Kent, Superboy Prime

Dodging another volley of emerald energy, Superboy accelerated to top speed to get behind the Green Lantern who seemed to represent the greatest threat. A Daxamite, if he was correct. As he smashed forward his knee into the Lantern's back with what he assumed would be enough force to, if not kill, at least paralyze his opponent, he pondered the fact that in this twisted, ruined excuse for a universe this Lantern might be as close to a Kryptonian would have to kin.

Excluding, of course, all the other disgusting freaks this universe seemed to provide. Like that other "Superboy." He really didn't understand how someone could try to pass themselves off as Superboy when they dressed like a degenerate punk. He had looked like someone who would curse in public or mouth off to his parents. Of course, from what he saw, "Connor Kent" pretty much was that kind of person.

Except, of course, for the fact that the freak had no parents. He really didn't know how the clone had gotten away with wearing that shield for so long.

That shield meant something. It meant truth and justice. It meant that you were supposed to fix the things that were wrong. Not that you were supposed to hide on a farm and feel sorry for yourself.

Take this twisted excuse for a universe for example. It needed to be fixed. Badly.

It's not that all the people in the universe were bad, per se. It's just that none of them were good. Batman was still fighting for justice, but he was a paranoid sociopath. Wonder Woman was still truthful and courageous, but she spent half her time spouting radical politics and cult religions. And then there was that murder thing. And this universe's Superman was too weak, in so many ways, to make it right.

But he was still Superboy: the real Superboy. That meant that he could still fix it. He would find a way, no matter how hard it was.

He didn't pretend that it would be easy, that he wouldn't have to do things that he would avoid in situations less dire. But when he finished, those things wouldn't matter. Everything would be right again.

Superboy felt a slight twinge of regret as he knocked out the last Green Lantern guarding him. He knew this would be hard at times: some of these people he even liked a bit. But as he looked at his reflection in the unconscious Lantern's eyes, he saw the shield he had burned into his chest:

He was Superboy, and he was right.


	3. Kon El, Superboy

The Shield

Kon-El, Superboy

When Robin first met Superboy, he wore the shield on his chest like a badge. He had practically begged other people to comment on it. In hindsight, it wasn't that surprising. He was thrown into life as a teenage boy with superpowers, told he was going to replace Superman, and shoved into the public eye almost immediately. That would put an ego on anyone.

An ego that stuck.

Of course, eventually Superboy had learned humility too. Part of it was the fact that he was occasionally beaten. Most of it was probably Superman's influence. Robin knew that assigning a portion of it to his influence on Kon was probably egotistical in itself, but he assigned it anyways.

But even after Kon's personality got a bit more rounded, the "S" he was was always a point of pride.

Until it became something more.

Kon never got over what Luthor used him to do (no matter how much he blamed himself, Robin and the rest of the Titans never could). After that, the "S" became a shield in the literal sense: it became a talisman. Tim had made more than one trip out to Smallville, and even though it wasn't necessarily visible when Kon was being Connor, there was never a time he wasn't wearing it somewhere.

Kon had told Tim, once he finally asked, that it was because it him him think of himself as Kryptonian. It was a way to try to forget the human part of him: the Luthor part of him. Kon hadn't responded when Tim told him that he was far more human than Luthor would ever be.

Tim liked to think that after Superboy Prime, Connor had come to realize that it wasn't the Kryptonian powers that made him worth of the shield, but how he chose to use them. That humanity wasn't about genetics. Tim had talked to Kon about it in the medlab after the fight. Or rather talked at him about it: Kon hadn't been able to respond. One of the many downsides of coma conversations.

But Tim like to think that Kon had listened. He liked to think that Kon would have agreed with him. And he liked the imagine what Kon's face would look like if he saw Tim's change in color scheme.


	4. Linda Danvers, Supergirl

The Shield

Linda Danvers, Supergirl

Before Linda was me and I was Linda, I never though about wearing the shield. By the time that my Luthor had created me, the Superman of my world was dead. I could remember him through Lana, but Lana and I weren't exactly the same person. I never really felt like I was trying to live up to him. It always seemed that the costume was made for me.

I tried not to think about the fact that it was me that was made for the costume. It got harder to avoid those thoughts once I met the Superman of this world.

Linda always though about the shield. From the very first day that we merged, she was trying to live up to something.

Initially she was trying to live up to the image of Superman. She knew that she hadn't lived a particularly heroic life. She thought that there were others more deserving of the crest she was wearing. But she couldn't give it to them, so she did her best to make up for her past: to make sure that the idea of Superman didn't become tainted because of her.

It wasn't till I was gone that Linda started to feel like she was in my shadow. Superman had saved millions. I had been willing to die saved HER. Linda Danvers didn't think she was the kind of person heroes died to save. When she looked in the mirror, she still saw a punk kid who ran off from her bright and shiny future to wallow in filth and darkness-- someone who went from a cop's daughter to a sacrifice for her boyfriend's cult. When Linda had started thinking this way, she felt even less deserving of the shield on her chest than she had compared herself to Superman.

But I was an angel, like we were before: I watched her. There had never been a time she worked harder to deserve it.

And then Linda met Kara Zor-El.

Linda had tried everything she knew to save the lost little girl. She fought every enemy that was presented, and then she sought more to fight. She stood her ground against the Specter. She even gave herself over to violent and certain, if not immediate, death. None of it worked. She wished she could simply do for Kara what I had done for her. And still, she never thought she deserved it.

And in the end, she was glad that neither Superman nor I had to be the one put the little lost girl back in the ship and send her off to her death. Selfless, even when her selflessness was met with defeat.

Linda Danvers will never believe she deserves the shield she wears, but she'll never stop trying to protect the ones who (in her mind, at least) do.

The truth is, she is perhaps the one who deserves it most.

I know Linda; if she could see past her own guilt, the irony would kill her.


	5. Kara ZorEl, Supergirl

The Shield

Kara Zor-El, Supergirl

When Kara first arrived on Earth, she didn't think anything odd about the fact that Kal seemed to always be wearing the family crest. It was a bit on the formal side, but he was constantly in the public eye. It seemed appropriate that he would dress a bit more formally that her father had on Krypton.

It took her a week or so after she entered human society to notice that humans never seemed to wear family crests. Initially, she thought it was just the adults: a lot of the kids (and even people her age) seemed to be wearing icons on their clothes. Then she noticed that one of the kids had a different crest on his shirt one day than he had the past.

When she asked Kal about it, he told her (between emergencies) that those icons weren't family crests, but the brand logos of the clothing companies. Kara briefly considered the possibility that corporations might serve a similar function on Earth to that of family on Krypton. Cursory observation quickly relieved her of that notion.

She later learned that in the past, some Earth families had used crests. This led her to the even more confusing question of why they had stopped. Batman had given her a confusing answer about the dwindling of hereditary aristocracy since the end of feudalism. As near as she could tell, it meant that family had become less important. She didn't quite believe him when he said she was wrong and told her to read up on Earth history.

But when she asked the Kents, she did believe their insistence on the importance of family (blood relative or otherwise). It made her a bit uncomfortable the way the fussed over her for a while after that.

Eventually she abandoned her confusion over the issue as one of the many differences between Earth and Krypton that were neither understandable nor important. It was enough that the crest was still important. After all, people's eyes didn't light up with hope when they saw a Nike logo.


	6. John Henry Irons, Steel

John Henry Irons, Steel

Normally, Clark Kent would have made an exit by now and Superman would have had these bank robbers handed over to the SCU about 10 minutes ago. Normally, 15 minutes from now Superman would start looking into exactly how a group of bank robbers got a hold of what appeared to be Qwardian technology.

Normally, Superman wouldn't be nearly powerless following a run in with Dr. Light two days ago. So instead Clark Kent had to be content with activating an emergency beacon to alert the Justice League, taking mental notes for his story on the robbery, and hoping fervently that his forced vacation didn't last a year this time.

Clark's demeanor picked up significantly, however, when he saw the glinting body armor of them man standing outside the bank door. He hadn't known who to expect to respond to his beacon. He was glad Oracle had managed to get Steel.

Clark had always been proud whenever he worked with John. To some extent, that was true of most of the people who wore the "S" shield. Certainly, Kara and Connor had never made him anything but proud. And despite the unfortunate business with Luthor and Infinity Inc., Natasha was shaping up to make both him and her uncle proud.

They were all living up to expectations and turing out to be amazing individuals. But there was still the fact that in their situation, heroism had been the expected. For Kara, it was how she found her place in a world with Superman as the only other Kryptonian. Connor had literally been made for this. Even Natasha was, to some extent, just following in John's footsteps.

When it came down to it, Clark recognized that even he was just doing what seemed expected of someone with his gifts. It would take a callous person to stand by and do nothing with his kind of abilities (when he has abilities anyways).

That wasn't to say that their accomplishments didn't have value. By contrast, Kara and him could have taken the path Zod chose. Connor could have given into Lex's programing. And if Natasha hadn't stopped Luthor, John would be dead instead of saving him right now.

But the things John did, no one had expected of him. It certainly wasn't what Clark had in mind when he told him to live a life worth saving. He wasn't shouldering these responsibilities because he felt obligated or because it was expected of him. He was doing it because it needed to be done.

John had no special gifts beyond an amazing skill for engineering. He was an ordinary man. An ordinary man who tried to stop Doomsday with a sledge hammer. An ordinary man who stood in for Superman because it needed to be done, and did an amazing job at it. Those things required an extraordinary kind of person.

The kind of person that the robbers just noticed. Clark flinched as he felt the barrel of the alien gun press against his head. Qwardian tech packed a punch even when he was at full power. Still, it was a good thing he was being used as the example hostage. He stood a better chance of surviving than the other hostages.

The man who seemed to be the ringleader spoke before John even opened his mouth. "I suggest you put down that hammer, cape. Unless of corse, you prefer your hostages less lively."

John knew how hostage situations worked: money was just money, and peoples lives were at stake. Setting down the hammer, he raised the front of his mask, exposing his face. "I'm assuming you want safe transit to a non-extradition country. Any other demands?"

John was good. He was playing to their ego. "See boys, this cape knows who's in charge. Make it Bialya, Steel. And I don't want any other capes giving us trouble there."

Clark knew that John couldn't make the later promise they were asking for. Even if by some extraordinary effort they managed to dissuade the rest of the Justice League from following up on this, Green Lantern would be obliged to follow up and the Qwardian technology. And in all likelihood, Checkmate would hunt them down within a week tops.

The crooks, however, didn't know that. And Clark had played cards with John for a couple of years now. The man could bluff. He stared at the ringleader for a moment before nodding: "I'll have to call this in."

"Do it then. And be fast," he replied, motioning to Clark and the gunman above him. "My associate's trigger finger tends to get jumpy."

Steel nodded again and opened the control panel on his arm. He pressed three buttons, and the room was filled with bursts of yellow light and a few short screams as the robbers fell unconscious. John really was good at the slow play too. It's why Clark always lost when they played cards.

Clark stood up as Maggie Sawyer entered the room. "Not that I'm complaining, Mr. Irons," she said "but what just happened?"

John reached down and picked up his hammer as he replied. "The Weaponers of Qward never let out their technology without booby traps. I was just buying enough time for my scans to find the right frequency to disable this series of weapons."

Clark had his pad and pen out by the time he reached John. "Clark Kent, Daily Planet. Steel, can we get some comments on the robbery?" Predictably, Maggie excused herself to deal with cleanup. Clark had learned a long time ago that one of her favorite perks of having a recognized hero on sight was that she could dodge the interviews till later.

Clark and John walked over to the side as the police escorted the hostages out and arrested the robbers. "Thanks for the save John." Clark said, lowering his voice and making sure that he appeared to be taking notes on their 'interview.' "I owe you one."

"Live a life worth saving. We'll call it even. Also, don't be late for the card game this week. You're on vacation. You don't have an excuse this time."

Clark smiled as John loudly concluded their interview and went to check on the hostages and talk with Sawyer. He really was proud to wear the same crest as John Henry Irons, the Man of Steel.


End file.
